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Nigella Caught Faking It
British food diva Nigella Lawson is in the doghouse with fans after it came to light that some sets on her show were faked, and an episode that featured a bus ride to the grocery store was filmed on a bus rented for the occasion and filled with extras hired to sit around and pretend to read the newspaper.
This revelation comes on the heels of the discovery that, although her shows are presented in such a way that one believes they take place in her Eaton Square mansion, the interiors are filmed in a rented home in South London. As an article in the Daily Mail reports, “this has resulted in a minor backlash with dozens of annoyed viewers writing critically about her show on the BBC’s online viewer message boards.” One angry viewer says it’s “[a]nother example of the TV execs conning the gullible public!”
This has led to questions as to whether the “friends” who sit down to eat Nigella’s culinary creations, at the end of the show, are really her friends in the first place—or just hired actors. The article reveals the shocking truth: “The ‘friends’ are what is termed as ‘invited guests’ rather than Miss Lawson’s bosom buddies.”
Gasp, shock, horror.
Call me a cynical American, but I never would have expected otherwise.
And there are certainly fans who feel the same way: that the fake sets and fake friends are all much ado about nothing.
I personally couldn’t care less if Nigella went to the shops in a carriage made from a pumpkin and pulled by a host of fairy mice. Let the food do the talking!
Then there are those who really get to the meat of the matter: It’s not about rental sets, or even food. As one commenter put it: “As long as I get pictures of rubenesque Nigella … I don’t care.”
Posted by
| Monday, October 8, 2007 at 12:19pm
| 11 comments
Tagged with: nigella lawson, fake sets, daily mail, bbc, fakery, the grinder, media
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You mean there are things on TV that aren't true? I'm shocked....shocked I say!
Sheesh, even the network news is phony these days.
Next you're going to tell me that some of the food on her shows is already cooked, and she DOESN'T have a magic oven that can roast a whole chicken in thirty seconds.
I just have a problem with her personally. I made her a gorgeous necklace and brought it to her as a gift (http://pioplayground.com/necklace4.php) because I thought it would look beautiful on her, and, obviously, thought she might be able to help me promote my little tiny jewelry biz. i brought it to her at a store appearance she made in ny. when i got to her table, where she was signing people's new products they'd bought from a line she'd come out with, she accepted the gift, but seemed almost hostile. i never received a thank-you from her(or, one of her pr people), though my card was in the bag with the necklace. how rude! too bad i wasted the time and energy on that project! i loved her til then.
Nigella Lawson is "rubenesque"? *sigh* She's a lovely woman, and on the voluptuous side, but she's certainly not "rubenesque" except in a world where anorexics would be considered "normal."
Wait, seriously? People are seriously angry because her ride on the bus wasn't an actual ride on a bus? Did people genuinely think that she was riding the bus to the store? Does it change anything about her show to know that she's not filming in her house? This cracks me up.
The comment about the necklace is also hilarious.
So, reina, you gave her a gift that wasn't a gift, it was bait to attract her to a business decision you wanted her to make? She didn't respond the way you wanted when you tried to manipulate her so now you're mad at her? Get a grip!
As for Nigella's "faking," so what? Do British viewers really think every cooking show is filmed in the host's actual residential kitchen? AFAIK, in the US only Paula Deen actually shoots in her own kitchen.
I thought one of Bobby Flays shows was done in his backyard in Brooklyn? No?
All of Nigella's fans already knew that the "set" in Nigella Express was just that. Yes, the previous series were filmed in a house she lived in with her first husband, but THIS series is not. And speaking of "fake" friends, in the first episode aired in the US this week, those "actors" are her real father and her real children.
The necklace lady was really cheeky too. She was lucky that Ms. Lawson is such a gracious person. Anyone else would have handed it back with instructions to "give it to my people".
Does anyone who has a problem with this know how hard it is to film on a bus for broadcast? How many releases have to be signed and so on, how long it takes to set up, how many takes, etc. From what I read here, no on really does care that much at all, except for that crazy lady and the necklace story.
I hear ya City West, welcome to tv land.
These posts are so right on (and worth reading for the necklace story alone)